DOASKDOTELL BOOK REVIEWs of Warren Farrell’s The
Myth of Male Power, Marianne Legato’s Why Men Die First

Author (or Editor): Farrell, Warren, Ph. D.

Title: The Myth of Male
Power: Why Men Are the Disposable Sex

Fiction? Anthology?

Publisher:Simon
& Schuster

Date: 1993

ISBN:ISBN
0-671-79349-7; CIP 93-18894

Series Name:

Physical description: hardbound

Relevance to HPPUB: Psychological polarity and gender
roles

Review: Clinical psychologist Warren Farrell conducts relationship
seminars for heterosexual couples to help them deal with the interchange of
roles and (to borrow from Rosenfels) polarities
within their interactions.

His chief thesis is an interesting mix of ideas already developed in
opposite ways by Gilder and Rosenfels, and it is
powerfully focused. While conventional society provides men with the illusion
of "power," society actually requires men to cower in all kinds of
submissive behaviors, to be reliable defenders and providers of women and
children. Even the corporate rat race demands submission. Government, he
argues, is actually stacked against men. No wonder women outlive men today by
about seven years, whereas in 1920 the difference was one year. In his last
chapter, Farrell actually proposed an Equal Rights and Responsibilities
Amendment (and improvement upon the Equal Rights Amendment which failed).
Farrell does sound like a libertarian to me.

Although Farrell's book is written for the mainstream straight world, it
has powerful implications for gays and for understanding homophobia. To wit,
young men are forced to believe that their "power" actually melts
into a roughshod, reckless readiness to sacrifice themselves for women and
children. Gay men welch on this ukase and, with
their worshipful narcissism, seem to mock the whole thing. Gay men remind
straight men that they can fail, and all so easily, and wind up impotent,
with no "masculine" identity left. Masculinity, it seems, is like
two inches of snow on a sunny yard on a 40-degree day.

The March/April 2003 issue of The Liberator: Defender of Men, and Men’s
Health America report that Farrell’s propose interview on the Donahue
show was cancelled because “when feminist leaders had been invited to also
appear on the show, they threatened the producers with the shrill allegation
that ‘Feminism is opposed to rape and the battering of women; so if you have
him on, you’d better take responsibility for making women even more
vulnerable.’”Even among different
factions of liberal and progressive camps there can be gross intellectual
dishonesty.

----

This is a good place to mention the children’s book, Oliver Button Is a
Sissy, by Tomie De Paola (Harcourt Brace, 1979).
It has been set to lyrics and music by James Shorter and has been performed
by some gay men’s choruses. When performed, it provides an exhilarating song
valuing diversity; after all, Oliver Button becomes a Star by advancing his
own talents. The “Oliver Button is a Satr”video is
reviewed separately at this site.

Then there is the Fox Searchlight/Independent Film Channel film Boys Don’t Cry, produced for just $2 million.
Hilary Swank won best actress in the 2000 Academy Awards for playing an
apparently trans-gendered woman. Teena Brandon, who
“masqueraded” as a man and eventually brought down a violent (downright gory)
end upon herself from some rather insecure “white trash” males.In fact, sometimes I was not sure that she
really was trans-gendered, rather than a freedom-seeking lesbian.With her high-pitched voice and
body-hairlessness, she did portray what young men used to dread as “gender
fraud.”Straight young men in the
olden days didn’t want to know about such things. I did not have that much
sympathy with this particular character. But the question here, again, is
what would drive young men to mutilate and kill over “knowing” someone who is
“different.”You could say that they
feel that their masculinity is threatened by the impersonation, but that’s
not likely. Perhaps they are reminded of their own possibility of failure.
But I think another important reason is that “different” people remind
insecure young men of their own powerlessness and expendability,
of their own “duty” to sacrifice a lot of their individuality and potential
“difference” in order to join warrior cults, to provide for women and
children. What angers a “trooper” about a “faggot” is that the trooper might
have to give his life and the “faggot” will get off scot free, without being
the worse for wear.

Marianne J. Legato, MD, FACP. Why Men Die First:
How to Lengthen Your Lifespan. New York:
Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 0-230-60517-8. 252 pages, hardcover. This book makes
an overwhelming case for taking into account major biological and genetic
differences between men and women, that help explain
why women live longer, and why females are the stronger sex. The later part
of the book examines the conventional wisdom on health advice, even on
matters like loss of erectile dysfunction. At one point, she even suggests
that the pattern of body hair is an important indicator. Socially, the book
makes a good complement to Farrell’s book.Blogger
discussion.